Lesson 2 – Stages of Cognitive Development

What is Cognition?

When you wake up in the morning, you begin thinking about the things you have to do for the day and look back at what you did yesterday. These thoughts are cognition at work. Thus, simply put, cognition is thinking.

The term cognition is derived from the Latin word cognoscere which means “to know” or “to recognise” or “to conceptualise”. It includes the mental processes associated with perception, knowledge, memory, emotions, problem solving, decision making language, and memory. Cognitive scientists who study cognition are searching for ways to understand how we integrate, organise, and utilise information in our brains. (Kahneman, 2011).

Experts argue that cognition progresses in stages with increasing levels of complexity and hence the phrase “cognitive development” which is the stages a child goes through conceptualising the world at different age levels. It refers to the child’s ability to learn and understand the world. to think about and remember what is happening around the child.

According to Piaget, the child acquires facts, concepts, principles and theories through the continuous process of assimilation and accommodation that lead to increasing abstraction and expansion of schemes. He argued the cognitive development of individuals progresses through FOUR stages (see Table).

STAGE 1: Sensorimotor Stage (0 – 2 years)

The first stage of Piaget’s theory lasts from birth to approximately age two and is centred on the infant trying to make sense of the world. During the sensorimotor stage, the infants knowledge of the world is limited to his or her sensory perceptions and motor activities.

• Between 0 to 6 months, the child uses his or her inborn skills and abilities such as sucking, grasping, looking and so forth. For example, a child will purposefully pick up a toy in order to put it in his or her mouth.

• Between 7 to 12 months, the child may combine schemas to achieve a desired action. He or she explore the surrounding and is able to associate that certain objects have certain qualities. For example, a child might realise that a rattle will make a sound when shaken.

• Between 13 to 18 months, the child begins a period of trial-and-error and experimentation. For example, a child may try out different sounds or actions as a way of getting attention from an adult.

• Between 19 to 24 months, the child begins to develop symbols to represent specific events or objects and understands the world through mental operations rather than purely through actions.

STAGE 2: Preoperational Stage (2 – 6 years) 

The preoperational stage occurs between ages of 2 to 6 years. Children at this age begin to develop language skills but they did not yet understand logic. In other words, they are not able to mentally manipulate information.

Egocentric:

They are egocentric which means they are unable to take the point of view of other people. They have a ‘self-centred’ view of the world and have difficulty understanding that other people may see things differently, and have a differing point of view.

Piaget used a number of creative and clever techniques to study the mental abilities of children. In an experiment to study egocentrism he showed a 4 year old child a model of 3 mountains (see picture). Sitting opposite the child was a doll. The child was asked to select a picture showing what the doll would have seen when looking a the mountains from its view. Guess which picture the child chose?

Interestingly, the child chose the picture of the mountains as seen from his point of view. It was not that the 4 year old did not know that the mountains ought to look different from the doll’s side, it was because the child is egocentric and tends to see things from his point of view and unable to see another person’s perspective. Some adults still behave in the same way!

Understanding of Conservation:

Conservation is the ability to keep in mind what stays the same and what changes in an object after some changes have been made to the object. A conservation task test, assesses s a child’s ability to see that some properties are conserved (or preserved) or does not change after the object undergoes a physical transformation. For example, a lump of clay is rolled into a   snake and the child is asked which has more clay in it; the lump or the snake.

Another well-known experiment involves demonstrating a child’s understanding of conservation. In one conservation experiment, equal amounts of liquid are poured into two identical containers (see picture). The liquid in one container is then poured into a different shaped cup, such as a tall and thin cup, or a short and wide cup. Children are then asked which cup holds the most liquid. Despite seeing that the liquid amounts were equal, children almost always choose the cup that appears fuller. Piaget conducted a number of similar experiments on conservation of number, length, mass, weight, volume, and quantity. Piaget found that few children showed any understanding of conservation prior to the age of five.

STAGE 3: Concrete Stage (6-11 years of age) 

During this stage, accommodation increases. The child develops an ability to think abstractly and to make rational judgements about concrete or observable phenomena, which in the past he needed to manipulate physically to understand. In teaching this child, giving him the opportunity to ask questions and to explain things back to you allows him to mentally manipulate information. During this stage, children begin to reason logically, and organise thoughts coherently. However, they can only think about actual physical objects, and cannot handle abstract reasoning. They have difficulty understanding abstract or hypothetical concepts. 

This stage is also characterised by a loss of egocentric thinking. The child has the ability to master most types of conservation experiments and begins to understand reversibility. Conservation is the realisation that quantity or amount does not change when nothing has been added or taken away from an object or a collection of objects, despite changes in form or spatial arrangement. The concrete operational stage is also characterised by the child’s ability to coordinate two dimensions of an object simultaneously, arrange structures in sequence, and transpose differences between items in a series. The child is capable of concrete problem-solving. Categorical labels such as “number” or “animal” are now available to the child. 

Logic: Piaget determined that children in the concrete operational stage were fairly good at the use of inductive logic. Inductive logic involves going from a specific experience to a general principle. On the other hand, children at this age have difficulty using deductive logic, which involves using a general principle to determine the outcome of a specific event. 

Classification: Concrete operational children also gain the ability to structure objects hierarchically, known as classification. This includes the notion of class inclusion, e.g. understanding an object being part of a subset included within a parent set, and is shown on Piaget’s inclusion task, asking children to identify, out of a number of brown and white wooden beads, whether there were more brown beads or wooden beads (Piaget, 1965). 

Seriation: Seriation is another new ability gained during this stage and refers to the child’s ability to order objects with respect to a common property. A simple example of this would be placing a number of sticks in order of height. An important new ability which develops from the interplay of both seriation and classification is that of numeration. Whilst pre-operational children are obviously capable of counting, it is only during the concrete operational stage that they become able to apply mathematical operators, thanks to their abilities to order things in terms of number (seriation) and to split numbers into sets and subsets (classification), enabling more complex multiplication, division and so on. 

Reversibility: Another new ability gained in the concrete operational stage is reversibility. This refers to the ability to mentally trace backwards and is of enormous help to the child in both their problem solving and the knowledge they have of their own problem solving. For example, in a conservation task, the change made could be reversed to regain the original properties. With respect to knowledge of their own problem solving, they become able to retrace their mental steps, allowing an entirely new level of reflection. 

A large portion of the defining characteristics of the stage can be understood in terms of the child overcoming the limits of the pre-operational stage. The pre-operational child has a number of cognitive barriers which are subsequently broken down, and it is important to note that overcoming these obstacles is not due to gradual improvement in abilities the child already possesses. Rather the changes are genuine qualitative shifts, corresponding to new abilities being acquired. The child is able to give justifications for their answers.

STAGE 4: Characteristics of the Formal Operational Stage (12 years onwards) 

The formal operational stage begins at approximately age twelve to and lasts into adulthood. During this time, people develop the ability to think about abstract concepts. Skills such as logical thought, deductive reasoning, and systematic planning also emerge during this stage.

• Logic: Piaget believed that deductive logic becomes important during the formal operational stage. Deductive logic requires the ability to use a general principle to determine a specific outcome. This type of thinking involves hypothetical situations and is often required in science and mathematics. 

• Abstract Thought: While children tend to think very concretely and specifically in earlier stages, the ability to think about abstract concepts emerges during the formal operational stage. Instead of relying solely on previous experiences, children begin to consider possible outcomes and consequences of actions. This type of thinking is important in long term planning.

• Problem Solving – In earlier stages, children used trial-and-error to solve problems. During the formal operational stage, the ability to systematically solve a problem in a logical and methodical way emerges. Children at the formal operational stage of cognitive development are often able to quickly plan an organized approach to solving a problem (Inhelder & Piaget, 1958).

Watch these Video Clips on the Stages of Cognitive Development by Piaget discussed earlier

              
Piaget's Theory

            
Stages of Development

            
Cognitive Development